1937-05-08 — Page 19

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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. SATURDAY, MAY -8, 1937.

BOOKS Edited by Roger Pippett

Fantasy...Adventure...

Tragedy

MEN WITHOUT MERCY

A

́By Alfred Döblin

(Gollancz, 88. Oc.)

LONG, carefully planned, impressive and challenging novel by the man who onco startled Europe with his story of the Berlin underworld, Alexander- platz, and is now an exile.

The narrative is heavy with tragedy throughout, yet it is told with auch restrained simplicity, meticulous observation and inten- aily of feeling that you will be com- pelled to follow it to the ironic close,

Karl was the eldest son of a scapegracO

father who rloted through his money and left his widow and children destitute. Up- Tooted from their country home. they pined in the city, but Karl the errand boy begins to learn the ways of towns and men.

He makes friends with a young 're. volutionary. Paul. But ils embittered mother has no pailence with politics. She only wants Kart to become rich: and respectable.

The struggle between his friend and her for the direction of his life, Karl's mother wins. He does grow rich and respectable. He marries, has chil dren, forgets that early vision of a eliy with empty palaces and foul gutters- and develops into a prosperous auto- maton.

I leave the climax of the tale to the author's conscientious and cap- nblo telling.

Herr Döblin's portrait of the pos sessive mother is splendidly vivid. She was only able to sway Karl her way because the actual conflict between the desire for ease and security and

Two-Headed Snake

Swallowed Itself!

An American zoo owns a two- headed snake.

It was born in the zoo, of quite common parents, but it storied to give a lot of trouble.

The two heads always fought at meal times. Each head would bite the other and then wonder why it hurt him.

The snake is now in a bottle of spirit.. One day one head started to swallow the other and the snake was dead before it could wonder why It was swallowing itself.

the teal of social justice went on In Liitind.

Like so much literature that came to us from Germany, the book in symbolical. Kari is an individual and sutters as such, but If he were simply Number 9009 his story would be inrgely the same. Hence the sense of urgency and power that pervades this remark able tale.

A PENNY FOR THE POOR By Bertolt Brecht

(Robert Hala, 71. Gd.)

HIS is a novel, translated

from the German, based on

oper, which was inspired by our own Beggar's Opera, Also, it is staged against a London back- ground, although Ilerr Brecht had never been to England when he wrote it.

Altogether a strange hybrid. Accord ing to the rules it should be a dull, dreary flop. Actually it is lively nod pungent and vigorous. The very fact that the writer did not know London and cared nothing about historical time adds lo, the pleasure of this fan Lasy.

The wretched soldier, wounded in the Boer War, who is such a fullure lu Mr. Peachum's elgliteenth-century gang of beggars and thieves and who is finally hanged for murder, 4 called George Fowkoambey. And he loses the 76 he received as compensation for his amputated leg by buying " ale-house in Newgate."

But don't smalle to: condescendingly nt sips like these: Herr Brecht more than makes up for them later on.

Rend on and learn what. Captain Maclieath is doing these days instead of robbing travellers on Hounslow Heath--and how far Mr. Peachtum has flung til tentacles since his clients and agenta went after higher game than pocket-picking. You will have to ad- mit that the author knows what he is writing about even if he is not sure of the distance from Waterloo Road to Whitechapel.

A Penny for the Poor, in fact, is n striking flight of Imaginative iletian ini which an artful cynicism barely con- ceals a passionate ideallem and distor

Elon is used to reveni reality.

Former Ziegfeld Actress

Dies After Long Illness

Worcester, Mass., Apr. 30, Mrs. Ella Wood Ladd, 09, former actress who played with the late Florenz Ziegfeld and William Brady in the original production of "Way Down East," died at her home to-day after a long liness.

-THIS WEEK-

J. B. PRIESTLEY, on a ranch in Arizona, speculates on Hollywood, England--and Mr. Priestley.

E. M. DELAFIELD spends a holiday on a Collective

Farm with her Provincial Lady, while -WALTER DURANTY, "acc" Moscow corres

pondent, writes his first novel about Russia... ELINOR MORDAUNT, in her latest story, sets

her hero sailing the seas of life. ALFRED DOBLIN, of "Alexanderplatz" fame, tells the tragic tale of au crrand boy, who became rich. BERTOLT BRECHT, a German author, brings

"The Beggar's Opera" up to date.

Solitary Priestley

MIDNIGHT ON THE DESERT By J. B. Priestley (Heinemann, 89, Gd.)

M

R. PRIESTLEY slis alone in his hut On 11 ranch In Arizona, under the midnight stars. No sound but the occa- sional cry of the coyote, the crackle of the stove, the steady intake of breath as he puffs away at the in- evitable pipe.

But his mind is racing at top speed: conceiving this snatch of autoblography on a new model, horn of a man not homesick but far from home.

It seems sensible to journey to Arizona, to sit in the desert at peace, to dissect as he does, in his bluff and honest manner, the com- munists among the New York Intellectuals,

But don't for a moment think that Mr. Priestley never gets anywhere.

Inconclusive on much he may be- but he sees with unusuahsanity (en-

couraged.. perhaps, by the distance), the spectacle of little Europeans chas- ing their own tails, the futilities of the theatre and of journalam, ifie fantastic atmosphere surrounding the "em- perors of make bellese" in the dim world of Hollywood..

The gentle debunking and deflating of Hollywood. If the least important, is among the most satisfactory things in

this book.

Better still is the provocative chapter into which gathered much wit and wisdom concerning the "ordinary American," product of "rugged" indf vidualism, who "appears to be far more frightened of names than he i of measures:"

"So long as he is repeatedly told that his Individualism remalius invļol- ate, he can be persunded to welcome schemes that look to an outsider quite boldly socialistic. Call him a 'Red' or even a 'Radical,' he may want to knock you down."

Quoting again. This book is so rich in human understanding that there is a phrase on every page worth cherish ing.

S. E. R. W.

ISLAM REPUDIATES DUCE

Calro, Apr 25,

Et Magravy Shelk, head of the Mohammedau University, violently protested to-day agulast Mussolini's recent speeches offering protec-

tion to Islam.

"Islam is in no need of protection either from Mussolini or from anybody else," he said.

"Islam will never again lend a sword to anybody. Mohammedans can only be ruled by Mohammedans. This must be leared by Mussolini and Europe for once and all."

This declaration is said to be the official declaration of all Islam chiefs.

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